The Group of 20 leading economies have committed to the automatic exchange of information on taxes as the “new global standard”, they said following their summit in Russia.

They should begin this exchange of information between themselves by the end of 2015, according to a joint communique issued yesterday.

“Cross-border tax evasion and avoidance undermine our public finances and our people’s trust in the fairness of the tax system,” it read. “We endorsed plans to address these problems and committed to take steps to change our rules to tackle tax avoidance, harmful practices, and aggressive tax planning.”

The move, spearheaded by the UK under its G8 presidency, came after China last month agreed to join the international effort by the G20 nations to combat tax evasion by signing an agreement to share tax records. That meant all G20 countries have agreed to cooperate on tax evasion, a priority set by leaders to address the causes of the financial crisis and combat corruption.

ActionAid, the campaign group, welcomed the G20 tax reform agreements as having “the potential to put an end to tax dodging that costs developing countries more than they receive in aid each year.”